


walking through the nights

by gurimjaa



Category: LOONA (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, Based on a dream I had, F/F, Honestly this is a mess, Other members appear - Freeform, parallel universe traveling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2020-10-02
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:00:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26763973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gurimjaa/pseuds/gurimjaa
Summary: For Olivia, Eden has been a home since after the years she has forgotten.Trying to find out a possibly new meaning to all and the reasons of her erased memories, she meets Gowon.Gowon may be the missing piece to everything.
Relationships: Park Chaewon | Go Won & Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye, Park Chaewon | Go Won/Son Hyejoo | Olivia Hye
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	walking through the nights

**Author's Note:**

> so yeah, as i tagged, this is based on a dream i had like a month ago and finished it in a rush because i wanted to post some october themed fics. so that's the reason why the ending could feel a little (a lot) messy, but yeah! i tried to add a lot of loonaverse references, so you may catch on those somewhere.
> 
> nothing more to say, hope you like it!

Olivia is settled in the thick branch of a tree, not too high, but enough to let the gentle breeze wave against her dress. She hums to a strange melody which she doesn’t recognize but develops deliberately.

She’s been resting there for hours. There’re only few orange beams extending through the sky as the sun already went past the horizon. Olivia takes her time to try to record the nameless colors sprawling through the clouds and reflecting onto the world. Her mind wanders too deep but it’s so silent she hears her own name being called. “Olivia,” she recognizes Yves’ voice calling for her.

Olivia tilts down her head to see Yves walking closer, sliding her feet through grass until she is standing beside the tree.

“Tonight,” she announces. “The moon becomes blood tonight”.

Olivia hums to herself. _That may be a reason why the sky was so pretty today._

She doesn’t answer but raises herself in the air, her body floats down and lands gently onto the ground. Olivia follows Yves through the grassland. They go through the silver metal gates that joins in a fence and surrounds the mansion. Yves secures them with locks and chains which she manipulates with her magic and enchants it from stranger’s presence, even though people didn’t show around anymore after a invisibility spell Vivi surrounded the mansion with.

The place within is an only building with a squared shape painted with a cream color, a single roof and divided in three floors. The only section that stood out was the entrance, which was sheltered by a smaller ceiling and propped up in an elevation of three steps, one set at each side.

Olivia and Yves walk through the path of plain soil, bordered by the rest of the lawn and small bushes. When they reach the front, the doors open and close automatically in Yves command, the wall lamps also torch up in yellow flames that illuminates the main hall. The insides are also simple; there’s not a single frame hung up, not much decorations in the furniture except from the dusty ones that were already there.

Yves voice echoes inside her own head, “ _girls_ ,” she calls everyone.

It’s not long until one by one, they start appearing and going down the stairs to gather in the large room. They were are dressed in the same attire: white gowns with some laces, sleeves, or without; some shorter or longer.

The first one to arrive is Vivi, then Yeojin at her heels, Heejin and Hyunjin. Choerry and Chuu come from the second floor with a endless energy, happily chatting while giving small jumps every two steps and with Jinsoul not too behind trying to keep up to their conversation. And lastly, Lip and Haseul emerge in the ground floor some seconds later, between with a faint burst of dark smoke (Lip always complaint that the third floor rooms where the harder to reach through stairs so she often used magic to shift herself around).

After they are complete, ten girls follow after Yves. They walk in quiet steps through the back corridor, reaching a simple door that lead to the gardens.

The same fence encloses a spacious backyard and is also accompanied with copious shrubs at the borders. There are small plants and flowers sprawled colorfully all around, and finally a very old tree standing tall in the center.

The huge white oak has grown a couple meters past the roof of the mansion, the abundant branches full of leaves gives off a shade through all the garden. The most characteristic feature of it is its own shine, almost magical. Its bark is silver bright, a darker shade in the cracks, it reflects the minimal orangish light it receives from the sky into shiny sparkles. The color is spread uniformly to the tips of the twigs until they transform into mint green leaves.

Its old roots spread all around and through the sides of the house, as if protecting it. They dig down so deep into the ground, the darkness and silence, where everything was calm and unbothered. The girls often spend time near the trunk and in contact with the exposed roots, welcoming the consolation from hundreds of years of existence and it’s close connection to the whole Eden. For Olivia, however, being with the company of the white oak tree has never been that pleasant. Each time she looks at it, there was this heaviness drowning her heart, an unknown painful memory that she could never quite decipher.

There were a lot of things Olivia could not understand in Eden.

Although that was the opposite case for Yves. Nobody really knows how she is the one that comprehends the mysteries better than anyone, not even Yves herself. She said it was like a innate connection to the place and most of the knowledge formulated by itself in her mind.

This was not unfamiliar for them as they usually found certain actions and habits of their own strange for themselves. It was like their mind had a chest full of memories that slipped through the cracks, but when they tried to remember, there was only a void, everything wiped out. And it has been like that since the first moment they woke up in Eden more than a decade ago.

She tries to shove back her thoughts to the back of her mind, now focusing in the next task ahead. She reaches the oak with the other eleven girls, stands in an area where the roots give space. They stand in a circle with Olivia being at the farthest edge from the tree, also breaking the formation by being a couple steps back. The process was already familiar after executing it every blood moon, which happened once a year.

It’s Olivia first time to travel as she’s the last girl from their own sequence. Olivia has heard different stories from the other eleven; how Jinsoul landed face first into the ocean, when Hyunjin appeared near a farm inside a corral full of cows, or when Yeojin turned up in a school and was scolded by some teacher who thought she was a student. But the most remarkable case is Heejin’s, of course, because she was the first to discover how they can break into another world, although Yves has declared ‘dimensions’ as the right description.

It was pure accident how Heejin found out about this peculiarity: Hyunjin had been bothering her about how she was becoming slow and out of shape after a run through the woods to pick up some berries and climb up trees. They raced through the darkness back to the mansion, a few minutes just past sunset and the moon was already tinting red.

Heejin, out of pride, decided to use magic to shift herself right into the kitchen, where probably the girls were already preparing dinner.

She just waited until Hyunjin was running at full speed to gather her magic and envision herself where she wanted.

Heejin snapped her fingers, ready for the lurch. Instead, she disappeared, vanished into thin air.

Of course, Hyunjin laughed at it first, thinking it was a joke. But then Heejin didn’t come back in the first hour past and they all started to panic at Heejin’s absence. It was the first time ever Hyunjin had showed herself so unsettled. Luckily, two hours later, Heejin appeared in the middle of the mansion with a stunned expression in her face. Heejin had rambled on and on all night, how she appeared in an unknown place with loud noises, more and more people walking in all directions and very, very tall buildings almost ten times the white oak and they could almost reach the sun, if that would have been possible, had said Heejin.

After that, they tried and tried repetitively to perform the same action again and they did not succeed until it the moon was bleeding red in the night sky and Hyunjin had flicked her fingers mindlessly. Hence, she didn’t come back until three hours later, with her dress dirtied and full of animal fur that made Lip grimace and sneeze for the whole night.

In that way, they finally learned it could only be done with the blood red moon.

-

“Remember,” Yves warns, “do not use dark magic by any means unless you must. And in that case, you better return here, immediately. We don’t know what dangers can come with it.”

“Yes, Yves.”

“Do not be too careless, Olivia,” Haseul says, aware of how Olivia can be ignorant of risks. “In here we are untouchable, but you’re going to be alone over there.” She gives her a small sheathed knife in a leather strap, meant to be secured around her thighs. It’s the same Haseul has given it to each one of the girls before her. Before returning to her position, Haseul whispers, “sometimes death wanders too close. Be sure to watch your back from time to time.”

It gives Olivia chills.

“I will.” Olivia says with resolution, accepting Yves and Haseul’s words. She lifts her dress enough and wraps the leather around her thigh, in a comfortable and firm knot and found a loop with one of the free ends to a loose strand under the dress, so in doesn’t slide off.

They take a step back to give Olivia space. She takes a deep breath, doesn’t waste more time and flicks her fingers.

There’s a burst of energy through every cell of her body, it feels like sparks of electric shocks. Everything goes black for just half a second and then her vision becomes more and more bright.

The trip is smooth and faster than Olivia had expected.

Luckily enough, she lands on her feet (despite Jinsoul and Heejin’s telling from experience that it could be a turbulent ride).

The place she reaches it’s not too different to where she comes from. Or at least not too different when it’s autumn, because Olivia find herself with dry leaves under her feet and more of them looking like a mat covering all the ground. The ones still hanging on trees are already brownish, making everything around her seem dull. The only contrast is the lighted up sky, opposite to the dark one at Eden. The time difference is not much, Olivia guesses; the sun floating low between the clouds, a couple hours before sunset.

In the same direction she faces, Olivia sees a spire far in the distance. It’s the only thing apart from nature that is visible from where she’s standing, so decisively she chooses that place as her first destination. She starts walking towards it, lifting her dress and striding through the tall grass.

It takes some time until she’s nearer (Olivia groans at the thought of not using magic, it would have saved time and effort to reach it). The lawn has a greener color, yet leafless trees become more abundant, but they give Olivia enough space to continue without problems.

Olivia finally catches a glimpse of a metal fence between the trunks and a blood rushing curiosity makes her quicken her pace.

When she finally reaches the front, Olivia widens her eyes.

The gate she faces is exactly the same that surrounds the mansion back in Eden. Olivia is sure her sight is not mistaken. She recognizes the details in them by memory: there are huge spirals made of bent metal mirrored at each side and upper spikes shaped as flames.

The only exception is the rust damaging some parts of it and giving it a dirty dark color to it instead of the clean silver she is familiar with.

Also, the building inside it’s nothing similar to theirs. There are three main towers, two smaller at the sides and the taller and bigger one in the center, which protrudes out more that the rest. It definitely surpasses the height of the mansion, probably by three or four times its size. It blends with the fallen leaves and brown trees from its pale yellow painted walls. There are huge windows at the upper floors, but some patches of white are visible on them, probably from the weariness of time.

Fortunately, there’s no lock in the gates. There’s only a latch that keeps it closed which needs a little strength to slide it open and consequently lets loose some flakes of dried paint. Olivia shakes them off her hands as she takes her time to put on the latch again.

The front yard is also different. There’s no path to the building, but only a uniform grass covering all the ground and there are no bushes or flowers accompanying it.

Olivia walks to the entrance. Before the porch there is a rectangular rock that reaches the height of Olivia’s waist. A long welcome message is engraved on it, covered by a layer of dust and dirt. Olivia crooks a brow when she reads out loud the title: “Eden Museum”.

Olivia turns to look into the forest. A wave of goosebumps makes her shiver.

 _This place is strange. What are the odds of getting somewhere so similar to Eden? And most of all, with the same name? Yves should know something about this._ Olivia determines a talk with Yves is going to be necessary when Olivia returns back. The place may have a connection to Eden, as they shared the same name. Maybe she could even find some unknown answers for them.

She continues scanning the text.

“Also known as Eden Academy until its closure, the Eden Museum was founded in November of the next year. The owner, Park Chaewon, kept the structure and transformed the place into an art gallery with diverse pieces of art to honor the memory of her former classmates”.

A little too eager to explore the building, her dress twirls when she turns in her feet to reach the front entrance, a double door with elegant carved wood and now rusty metal details. It’s also unlocked; Olivia barely touches it and it swings open slowly. It creeks so loudly it echoes through the place.

Olivia sets a foot inside. Her own steps also feel too clamorous against the ceramic floor, her movements amplify in the constant reverberation.

The main hall is spacious and empty from the lack of furniture in it. The insides a combination of whites, brown and yellow. A set of long windows are spread in pair opposites through the walls at the sides. It is barely lit up, but there’s a huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling; it is still crystal transparent despite the whole place being dusty, produces a halo of small hues of rainbow colors that breaks from the sun’s reflection.

Some paintings are still hanging in the walls adjacent to the windows, Olivia can’t guess how long they’ve been because the art doesn’t shine like it should. There are particles of dirt and patches of mold over the canvas.

At the very end of the hall, there are some stairs at the left side which lead to a visible floor, with another set at the opposite side and into the ceiling. Olivia walks as quietly as she can to the back of the room, bends her head back to give a good look to the roof. The stairs continue in a spiral for several levels until the end.

There are no other doors around, so Olivia decides to go one floor up.

The handrail is made of redwood and it’s very dusty, yet the varnish still protects it from the humidity.

The first platform is narrower that she expected, there are two passages that extend into empty rooms and uncovered windows.

At the second floor, she meets a hall that finally stretch to each side of the place. It is lightened up by the numerous windows she could see from outside.

Olivia goes to the left side first, and the doors lead to equal empty rooms with the same style. Some of them have a couple of desks and chairs, others have paintings which were taken down from the walls. The room at the very end was probably used as deposit room, as it had the most furniture stacked up and some sculptures grouped at a side. Olivia walks back, disappointed and uninterested. She quickly strides to the opposite side of the hall and it’s still the same, so she climbs another floor up.

-

By around an hour after, Olivia is at the fifth floor.

At a certain point, she decides to eye some of the art pieces in the rooms, settling with a feeling of understanding with some of them, appreciating the abundant colors (mostly washed off by time, but they were still noticeable). The ones she likes the most have people on it. There’s one, specially, with woman standing to a side but facing the front, surrounded by dark red clothing and shades of green, gray and black in the background. She has short hair that reach a little past her shoulders, eyes filled with yearning and plump lips tinted with the same color of her dress. Olivia spends the most time looking at that frame.

Her second favorite is in the same floor and at an adjacent room, where there’s a backside of a girl is running in a grass field and small flowers at the tips. It remembers Olivia of the days she spends with the girls, when the time is passing restlessly and the play together in the gardens back in Eden.

The thought of home also reminds her the place of the same name she’s at and the unknown time left she has. So she quietly walks back to the stairs and leaves the regret of not having enough time to watch the art pieces in the respective rooms. It’s bad to wanting more than one can have, anyway.

The sixth and last floor is the only one that has a door and makes the staircase darker. The knob doesn’t turn open, which makes Olivia thinks it’s probably locked from inside, so she applies a technique Hyunjin taught her years ago. The aims to the key lock with her elbow, preparing herself a few times before giving it a hard hit and making it swing open. She shakes off the remains of rust in her sleeve.

It’s different this time, as it doesn’t extend to the sides but has a circular space with windows all around the walls. It’s the top of the main tower. Although it’s not the end, because at the side of the stairs there’s a corridor that extends to the back. It’s as long as the past hallways, probably, and mostly dim. She can barely see another set of windows that let the light in.

Olivia recognizes just a frame of a door, which is opened, a couple of steps after.

It’s the only room with curtains, but they’re not slid close. The space is mostly occupied by a large table with sets of papers spread all around it with a single chair at the side parallel to the windows. There’s a dresser at one corner that has a broken mirror.

Olivia circles it and walks to the side with the seat to examine the files.

They are mostly newspaper, some complete and other pieces ripped off. She can recognize ‘Eden’ as the in almost all the headers. There’s nothing interesting she can make up form them at first sight, they’re articles of the academy and the museum.

Olivia decides to stack and roll them up very tightly, so the dust doesn’t spread. She uses one of the hanging ends of the leather straps at her thigh to secure it and carry them with her. At least that way she will have enough time to read them later.

Back in the hallway, the wall that extends with it it’s almost empty. Around the end of it, there are consecutive small frames, similar to the art pieces in the floors below, but these ones are small and there is no painting in them; they have scribbled words.

_The spirit of a wolf._

_Unexpected, without notice, subtly._

_Sharp eyes, intense stares._

_Cautious, quiet and mysterious._

_Ferocious and brave._

_Yet soft as the petal of a rose._

Olivia may not be poetic, but she can understand the slight connection between the phrases.

There’s a final painting at the end of the aisle. It’s a raven haired girl with clear skin and a small golden crown in her head. She is frowning, her eyes painted with a deep, heartbreaking, sad look. The feelings of her gaze are accentuated by her curved lips, sides of her mouth tugged down.

It gives Olivia chills. Especially when... Olivia squints her eyes, looks harder at the painting and starts realizing something.

Especially when it looks so similar to herself.

It looks like Olivia when she was younger, probably around sixteen. Olivia can’t deny the similarity of the cat like eyes and distinctive triangle shaped mouth between her own and the girl in the painting.

For the first time being in this place, Olivia feels scared to be alone. She guesses she should probably leave.

Beside her there’s a door with small windows at the sides. She leans in first to take a look at the surroundings. Looking down directly to the ground, she gets a slight vertigo front the height of the place. The door seems to lead the way into a single circular structure that looks like a watchtower. She can see, a little further, a division of green grassland from the forest and the rocks around the coast. For Olivia it is a little surprising to see the ocean so near, as she didn’t perceive the scent of the sea when she was nearby.

She backs off to pull the metal circle that is hanging as a knob.

A trail of stairs welcomes her. They go down in an endless circle, following the walls of the tower. Olivia perceives something at the side of her eyes. In the bricks, there are characters which Olivia can identify them as names.

 _Jeon Heejin. Kim Hyunjin_. _Jo Haseul. Im Yeojin._

Olivia’s heart starts racing. Hundreds of question flood her mind, clearly because she didn’t expect to find some of the girls names anywhere else. Those are the first ones, but with each step there are more and more names engraved down.

_Wong Kahei. Kim Jungeun. Jung Jinsol. Choi Yerim. Ha Sooyoung. Kim Jiwoo. Son Hyejoo._

The strangest thing is the way the last name rolls in her mouth in a very, very familiar way. “Son Hyejoo,” Olivia says out loud. She squeezed her eyes, trying to find, somewhere in her memories, why she seems to have heard it before.

But there’s nothing her mind returns, and Olivia is lost. This unsettling feeling has never hit her so hard before.

Suddenly, her predicament gets interrupted fear instead, the hairs in her neck stand at a cold shivering sensation.

Someone’s watching her.

Olivia turns around and at the opposite side of the corridor, she sees a silhouette that was definitely not there before. She can barely recognize if it is a person at all.

It is very frightening how Haseul’s words echoes inside her mind. “ _Sometimes death wanders to close_ ,” Olivia remembers clearly what she was told a few hours ago. But in the next moment, she doesn’t know what she’s doing until she realizes her legs are taking her down the stairs and she’s not looking anywhere else. The more she steps down, the windows which are just spaces without bricks become scarce, hence it gets darker and darker.

Olivia has never felt so terrified in her entire life. Not when she has never been afraid, facing the problems with her head held high and bare knuckles.

Her breath escapes her lungs in panic, she starts having trouble breathing and the effort of going down the stairs doesn’t help in anything.

Her ears are deafening with a ringing sound, Olivia wants to clutch her hands around her head.

Her heart is beating fast- so fast against her chest.

Olivia thinks she’s going to falter in any moment.

Just before her vision starts to blur in black and white, she reaches the end. There’s a big wooden door. Olivia wants to get out; she pulls and pushes it desperately, yet it doesn’t move.

She starts pounding her shoulder against it, shoves her body harder when she feels the door finally giving up.

The ringing in her ears has taken her hearing, she’s a second away from passing out with the increasing clouds fogging her sight.

Olivia knows she should not use dark magic outside Eden, but she does. She gathers power in the palm of her hand, aims to the rusty lock and it finally gives out.

Some relieve washes over her.

Olivia leans down and supports herself with hands on her knees. Her breath is ranging, she can feel her pulse drumming through all her body.

_Breathe in._

_Breathe out._

Her sight recovers back in a few seconds, the deafening sound subsides.

Olivia fumbles her dress up and slides the small knife out of the leather strap. Her hand shakes while she does, the hilt feels strange in her palm.

She stretches up again, throws back her head and now properly takes in the fresh smell of the sea in a deep breath to prepare herself to whatever is about to possibly come.

Olivia turns around.

Blonde streaks of hair cross her eyes.

“Why did you run?”

Her heart almost leaps out of her, Olivia extends her arm automatically with the blade pointing forward.

Is takes Olivia a whole second to fully observe the woman in front of her. Oxygen leaves her lungs; Olivia is mesmerized by the beauty that she graces. Her hair is a shade of platinum gold and her skin is very pale and clear. Those features are enhanced by a white, long dress filled with laces and elaborated details.

Olivia has never seen someone as stunning as her.

“Woah!” The woman lifts her hands up along with a surprised expression that soon transforms into disbelief. She raises an eyebrow at Olivia and scoffs at the weak stance she has despite holding out a weapon. Her shoulders relax and she lets herself lower her arms to examine the door of the watchtower, the one Olivia crashed open and now has a hole where the knob was, the wood broken and splinted.

“You just destroyed my door,” she says in a high pitched tone, “and dare to threaten me with a knife? I am incredibly offended.”

The woman turns back and now gives a pointy look to Olivia; she takes a step closer.

Olivia flushes in embarrassment, intimidated by the blonde’s glance. It is certainly disrespectful to hold out a knife at someone, so she lowers it down and awkwardly puts it back in the strap.

“I’m really sor-“

“Hyejoo?” The woman cuts her words.

A wave of chills makes her shiver. The sound of the name is so familiar yet strange to her ears. Olivia blinks multiple times, she furrows her forehead in confusion. _Son Hyejoo._ That was one of the names engraved in the bricks.

It is frustration that fills Olivia. The inability to reach out to her memories, the feeling of being rejected by her own mind.

The woman’s voice startles her. “It’s not real, isn’t it? It can’t be real,” it gets lower and lower until she’s just mumbling, Olivia can barely understand what she’s saying. “You can’t be _her_. She disappeared long ago. She ceased to exist that day, I felt it.”

There’s a very long silence; Olivia can’t bring herself to speak.

The look that lingers in the woman is so easy for Olivia to empathize with. A thought flashes in her mind, like a reminder. The image of the white oak tree back in Eden is drawn behind her eyes. Olivia can sense the ghost touch of the rough wood against her palm, the sight of its mint green leaves that repress the sun rays in sunny days and the sound of the wind blowing and stirring the branches.

Now everything is so distanced from her it is almost unreal, but she doesn’t want to go back, at least not yet.

The blonde woman shakes her head slightly, getting out from her trance, but the feelings in her eyes stay.

“I... I apologize. It’s just...” she seems out of words in her disoriented state. “W-what is your name?” The woman still seems distressed and flustered by her realization of _something_ , but Olivia decides not to pry.

Olivia is hesitant and astonished. She stays silent.

“My name is Gowon. What’s yours?” The woman pushes more, trying to courage Olivia.

At a certain extent, Olivia feels threatened with the presence of the blonde, especially when she hasn’t faced another human for more than a decade, apart from the girls. She can’t find any traces of harm in Gowon’s eyes, yet she can’t avoid the overwhelming weight they also had.

“Olivia,” she answers in a whisper.

“Olivia,” Gowon testes out the sound of the name through her lips.

She takes advantage of the moment of distraction to take a step back and run away to the forest. She has only moved a leg back and Gowon is already calling out for her, “wait! Don’t go, Hye-“ the woman breathes sharply, “Olivia.”

Olivia’s feet stay planted in the ground, she freezes in surprise and isn’t fully in her mind until she realizes Gowon’s words spilling out her mouth, although she remains calm and composed.

“I haven’t had visitors since... since a long time. I would very much enjoy your company. Of course, you may decline if you wish, but I would be glad if you didn’t.”

Olivia definitely doesn’t expect the offer from the woman. They are strangers after all. Yet she can’t deny the woman is endearing, so this time she forgets of walking away.

The woman doesn’t wait or give time for Olivia to answer. Her dress flows with her movement when she turns around. She gives small strides through the grass, and Olivia can’t allow herself not to follow her.

Gowon strolls to the side of the tower, a path where the ground is just dirt and rocks. At the back of the building, there’s an empty area and then comes a shallow cliff, with a dock built at the edge of it and extending above the ocean. The tier looks old but sturdy, with thick wooden boards assembled together. The waters are tranquil, the waves pull in and out in a constant manner and they crash lightly against the border. At the horizon, the sun is very near to the end of the ocean already, thus it gives off an orange color with shades of pink and purple. It reminds her of the skies of Eden, just moments before arriving this place.

Gowon reaches the end of the dock and lowers her body so she can sit with her legs hanging below her. Olivia mimics her.

Gowon seems a little surprised by Olivia’s decision of staying. She smiles and direct her eyes elsewhere, so she doesn’t scare Olivia away.

Contrary to their expectations, the silent in not heavy but comforting. The wind blows and it shakes the trees in the background, producing a constant relaxing sound of nature along with the incessant break of waves.

Olivia is only beginning to feel comfortable, and she breaks the silence, “this place is beautiful.”

“It is. Yet a lot of people wouldn’t understand that.” Gowon a voice is so soft and delicate.

Olivia treasures the moment they have. To a point, she regrets of even thinking in running away, especially when Gowon is all the things she hasn’t found in Eden. It’s something in Gowon that makes her feel... _comfort, hope_. Maybe these are the kind of feelings the girls have with the company of the white oak tree.

“Can I ask you something?” Olivia is careful, but inquisitive. Maybe Gowon can bring sense to some things.

“Yes. Whatever you are curious of. Although I have the answers for just as few things.”

 _Hyejoo_. The name echoes through her mind, with Gowon’s voice. _Maybe Gowon can bring sense to that_.

“Would you tell me about Son Hyejoo?” Olivia questions, this time taking enough courage to rise her head and face the woman.

Everything in Gowon is ethereal. Especially with the sunset lights reflecting in her face, making her look like she was glowing and her eyes like there were sparkles of stars shining through them.

In Gowon’s lips, a sad smile curves up in reminisce.

“You look so much like her.” She starts. “Son Hyejoo.” She whispers, almost protectively. “I wonder is she would’ve been like you at this age.”

“She was always far from others. Except I did everything to be by her side, until she accepted me as her friend. She was silent and mysterious,” Gowon smiles, and it’s the first time Olivia catches the special shine in her eyes. “A lot of people feared her, set her apart because of it. But in the truth, she was delicate. Strong, and very kind.”

Gowon talks so naturally and mindlessly, not caring of telling Olivia everything she has hidden very deep inside her.

“Do you believe in magic, Olivia?”

The question takes Olivia by surprise, and she has to pretend she doesn’t flinch by it. Nevertheless, Gowon accepts Olivia silence as an answer. (Although she is not even a bit aware of Olivia’s secret of her own).

“The day Hyejoo disappeared wasn’t like any other day. There was a strange feeling lingering in the air.” Gowon is so open Olivia feels a little apologetic. Olivia feels Gowon’s need to be heard, and yet she speaks with stories behind her words that Olivia can’t seem to understand. Still, Olivia offers her presence and listens attentively. “It was just after the first recess. She fell in her knees, and everything became heavy and somber. I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t. I was unmoving.” She pauses to take a breath. “Then it all happened in a second. She just... vanished, along with the others.”

“Others?” Olivia asks, and only receives a nod in response.

“The people said they were cursed,” she explains, “touched by dark magic.”

“Dark magic isn’t evil,” Olivia says, a little hostile.

“I know.” Gowon interjects quickly. Sensing no opposition from Olivia’s side about the topic, she is fueled to continue talking about it. “A lot of people though a lot of bad things of Hyejoo, but she was all but that. I think it’s the same with magic. A lot of people fear it, that’s why they think it’s evil.”

Olivia is quickly to ask the first question that formulates in her mind. “And what do you think about it?”

“ _Dark magic isn’t evil_ ,” Gowon repeats the exact words Olivia said before. “People _use_ it,” she emphasizes, “to bring harm.”

Olivia feels relieved about Gowon statement; thus, it convinces her that Gowon is trustworthy. So she takes the silent for herself, and she speaks. “Dark magic helped me survive,” her voice is a careful whisper. She glances at Gowon before continuing, and she meets Gowon’s intrigued eyes. “Me and my sisters.” She specifies. “Something happened to us long time ago. Dark magic helped us live on.”

“ _Sisters_...” Gowon trails off. “What is like to have sisters?”

A smile escapes into her face at the thought of the girls. “We aren’t sisters by blood but chose to be together because we didn’t have anyone else.” Olivia feels the need to share something of her with Gowon, as the latter did. “It is wonderful, actually. We don’t need much words to understand each other.” Olivia remember the countless times their voices echo in their own head instead of vocalizing words. “We have fun,” a memory of them running and chasing each other through the meadows crosses her mind. “And we worry about each other.”

Gowon hums in liking as she takes some seconds to think.

The sun is halfway down from where it was when they arrived. The brightness is dimmer but the reflection on the sea is lower, so it hits Olivia’s eyes and she has to narrow them.

“What are you doing here, Olivia?” Gowon questions, although she does with her gentle voice. The sudden change of topic catches her off guard, but Olivia doesn’t complain.

Olivia doesn’t doubt in saying, “I’m searching for answers.”

“To what?”

“To why I live like I do.”

There’s a moment of silent peace, and Olivia inhales deeply to take in the fresh smell of the sea in front of her. The chilly wind also seeps inside her dress and makes her shiver.

Gowon giggles resound in her ears.

“That sounds philosophical.”

Olivia knows Gowon isn’t mocking her, and a laugh of her own escapes her lips. She wonders how a stranger can make her so comfortable like this.

“And why are you here, Gowon?” Olivia asks back when the mood is calm again.

“Searching for company.” Gowon scoffs at herself. “The maids at home are kind, but they seem to love gossiping. At least my husband gives me enough freedom. So I come here to reminisce.”

Olivia’s expression falls, even though she doesn’t know why she feels disappointed. “A husband,” she whispers.

Even though Gowon doesn’t need to explain, nevertheless, she does. “My parents always wanted me to marry.” Gowon lifts her hand to look at the ring in her fourth finger. She rolls it against her skin. “He is a good man. And I’m mostly glad he didn’t ever want children.”

“And you also didn’t?”

Gowon shakes her head. “I don’t love him.” She stays in silence for a moment, directs a careful expression to Olivia before saying quietly, “Hyejoo took my heart with her.”

The words unknowingly make her heart ache.

Gowon plays with her own fingers and looks nervously at the ocean waves.

“Indeed.” Olivia smiles, and it brings assurance to Gowon. “How long has it been since Hyejoo...”

“Thirteen years.”

Olivia’s breath stops. Suddenly everything rushes through her mind, _thirteen years._ A frown deepens in her forehead.

She wonders why haven’t she thought of it before. All the hints, the resemblances. _Son Hyejoo_. The familiarity of the names. She inhales sharply.

“W-what date?”

 _November 10th._ It echoes in her mind.

“November 10th.” Gowon says.

-

“I have to go,” Olivia says, she stands up from the pier, fumbling her dress. Gowon also does the same, but with panic flashing through her eyes.

“Wait, Olivia!” Gowon looks at her, eyes filled with hope. The way Gowon gazes her is so intense, Olivia stops in her steps.

Even if she feels the urge to hold onto Olivia and tell her to stay, it reflects in her eyes and beg Olivia to stay, _at least a little longer_.

She isn’t sure if it’s Gowon’s doing, but Olivia suddenly becomes aware she shouldn’t leave the place. Not when maybe, just maybe, that was the place where she came from.

Although a rush of dark magic surges to her right hand, like a reminder. Olivia had spent hours already; there’s line streak of lighting left, few minutes before the sun hides completely.

Olivia’s time is almost up.

She stares into her hand, sees the mild dark clouds of magic slowly appearing.

Then she lifts her gaze to Gowon.

The feeling still lingers in her orbs, and Olivia thinks that maybe they’re mirroring her own.

She can’t ignore the ache in her chest. It is strange how she feels Gowon in her soul, like roots of memories connecting them both. It reminds her of the white oak tree with mint green leaves, it’s the same dull pain constricting her lungs.

Olivia has lived in silence and out of trouble all the past years. She’s not the kind of woman that takes challenges, not the kind that takes risks at all. She blames the adrenaline in her veins that doesn’t let her think clearly.

“Gowon,” she calls out.

She has never been this reckless.

Olivia knows well the power of dark magic, yet she can’t avoid the fear of not being strong enough to hold its energy this time.

A few seconds are left.

“If I could take you with me, would you come?” Olivia asks and extends an arm in hope.

It is selfish of Olivia to ask. Her magic could fail, bring only Olivia back to Eden and leave Gowon, alone and abandoned, without any answer or the possibility to encounter Olivia ever again. It is desire and greed that fog her mind and persuade Olivia to be believe it’s possible.

Gowon is dazed for a moment; her stare never leaves Olivia. It isn’t long until a smile tugs in Gowon’s mouth, she steps closer, connecting their hands. They slot together so, so perfectly it brings a tickling sensation in Olivia’s insides.

“Yes.”

Olivia can see how slowly the thin line of light disappears in the horizon, and she prepares herself.

Dark magic spreads heavily in her free hand, and Gowon only looks at it, curiously.

In a flick of fingers, they’re gone.

—

When Gowon wakes up, she’s welcome by eleven pairs of eyes, and faces that seem too familiar.

**Author's Note:**

> i'll be really happy to read some of your theories. there's a lot of back story that i didn't want to add so it's open to your imagination, so you can leave your comment of your thoughts!
> 
> anyway, hit that kudos, comment box or a lovely follow in twitter [@gurimjaa](https://twitter.com/gurimjaa) ♡


End file.
